Power Rankings

Thanks to McKeon, Marlins are looking marvelous

By Dan George, SI.com

Still feisty at 72, Marlins manager Jack McKeon could become the oldest manager to reach the postseason. AP

The Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees each have enjoyed extended stays atop the Power Rankings this season. And, hey, who wouldn't?

But none of them has played as well over the past four months as ... the Florida Marlins.

Since May 23, Jack McKeon's team is 64-37. That's the best record in either league during that time and good enough for a 1 ½-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League wild-card race entering the season's final two weeks.

It's also nothing short of amazing, considering that this is the same team that began the season so poorly that manager Jeff Torborg, despite a 20-year friendship with owner Jeffrey Loria, was jettisoned May 10 and replaced by the 72-year-old McKeon.

Even in July, the Marlins were so unsure of their postseason prospects that third baseman Mike Lowell, their best offensive player, was the subject of one cost-cutting trade rumor after another. Things looked especially bleak after they dropped eight out of nine in late August, then lost Lowell to a broken hand.

But the Marlins, ranked No. 7 in this week's Power Rankings, are 12-3 since then, taking two out of three from the Braves over the weekend in Miami. And here they are, on the verge of their first postseason appearance since beating the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series.

They're not the kind of team that blows you away. Sure, Lowell was having a fine season (.277, 32 home runs, 105 RBIs) before he got hurt, 20-year-old rookie Miguel Cabrera has been a surprise impact player, and Pudge Rodriguez (.305-16-81) seems to have rejuvenated his career. And, yeah, 21-year-old rookie Dontrelle Willis (13-6, 3.27 ERA) has been a terrific shot in the arm, both on and off the field. Nevertheless, the Marlins rank in the middle of the NL pack in both hitting and pitching.

No, the main reason the Marlins are where they are is cigar-smoking McKeon, who has lit a fire under them with his cranky, old-school style. While Torborg babied the youthful team, McKeon got in their faces. He's had public spats with pitchers Brad Penny and Tim Spooneybarger, and handed out more than a little tough love.

And it has worked. With 13 games to play, the Marlins control their destiny. They open a three-game series Tuesday night at Philadelphia, then play a four-game set in Atlanta before returning home for three with the Phillies and three more with the Mets.

The Philadelphia games should be especially interesting. Florida is 9-4 against the Phillies this season, and McKeon remarked a few days back that Phillies manager Larry Bowa seemed to be panicking. The irascible Bowa, who managed for McKeon in San Diego in 1987-88, snapped back, "If they're worried about other teams, they have problems."

Who could ask for a more entertaining finish? Not Marlins first baseman Derrek Lee.

"A lot of us have been here five or six years, and September has always been when you're making offseason plans," Lee siad. "But right now we're in it, and this is what the game is all about, trying to get into the playoffs and win a championship."

Amen.

MLB Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 4 New York Yankees God Bless America was sung on the two-year remembrance of 9/11 last Thursday at Yankee Stadium during the seventh-inning stretch ... which came at exactly 9:11 p.m. 2 1 San Francisco Giants Here's an incredible stat. Barry Bonds is hitting .000 with runners on second and third this season. It's true. ... OK, OK, OK. So he's 0-for-1 with 15 walks. 3 2 Atlanta Braves According to TV highlights, baseball is all about home runs. So how come the Braves, with a club-record 220 homers, are on pace to draw 2.4 million fans, their sixth consecutive season of declining attendance? 4 3 Oakland Athletics A couple of weeks back, we mockingly wondered where was this year's famous finishing kick. Our bad. They're 16-5 since Aug. 22, turning a three-game AL West deficit into a 3 1/2-game lead. 5 5 Boston Red Sox Bill Mueller for MVP? The Red Sox think he has a case, and why not? He leads the American League in hitting (.329) and all major league third basemen in slugging (.552). Yes, Bill Mueller. 6 6 Seattle Mariners After giving up the winning run in a 5-4 loss to the Rangers, Shigetoshi Hasegawa booted his glove in disgust. It wasn't a bad kick. "But I didn't have good follow-through," Hasegawa said. "I don't think I'm going to be drafted by the NFL." 7 8 Florida Marlins Too bad nobody in South Florida seems to be noticing what's happening at Pro Player Stadium. Even after their weekend series with the Braves, the Marlins are averaging just 15,223 fans per game. 8 7 Philadelphia Phillies At the coin toss to determine who would have home field in the event of a one-game playoff with one of five teams, Larry Bowa told GM Ed Wade to call "tails" on all five flips. The Phils lost all five tosses. No wonder he's panicking. 9 11 Los Angeles Dodgers Rickey Henderson, who turns 45 on Christmas Day, says he'd like to return in 2004. Dodger fans may have other thoughts, since Henderson is hitting just .208 in 29 games with L.A. Steal away, Rickey. Please. 10 12 Houston Astros They're the third team to lead the NL Central this month. The last time three teams led the same division in September was 1983, when Philadelphia, Montreal and Pittsburgh topped the NL East. You want trivia, we got trivia. 11 13 Chicago Cubs If Kerry Wood and Mark Clement each win one more game, it'll be the first time since 1945 that four Cubs starters have won at least 13. They went to the World Series that year. Hey, we're just sayin' ... 12 9 Minnesota Twins Joe Mays signed a four-year, $20 million deal after his 17-win 2001 season. Since then, he's 12-16 with a 5.91 ERA. And now he's probably out till 2005 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. 13 10 Chicago White Sox When Jose Paniagua gave ump Mark Carlson the finger last week, the Sox gave Paniagua the thumb. "That's not what we stand for," said GM Ken Williams. At least not from a guy with a 108.00 ERA. 14 16 Toronto Blue Jays Roy Halladay or Esteban Loaiza for the Cy Young Award? The Tigers' Bobby Higginson says Halladay: "Loaiza's good, but you can feel comfortable against him. With Halladay, you always feel like you're on the defensive." 15 14 St. Louis Cardinals Tony La Russa won his 2,000th game last week. Only Connie Mack, John McGraw, Sparky Anderson, Bucky Harris, Joe McCarthy, Walter Alston and Leo Durocher have more. Even more incredible? La Russa's never been fired. 16 17 Arizona Diamondbacks With his team just about out of the NL West race, Bob Brenly is finding out how Buck Showalter felt. "I went from manager of the year to getting fired in a couple of months," he said. "It's pretty amazing I got that stupid so fast." 17 15 Kansas City Royals Reliever Jason Grimsley is philosophical about his 2-6 record and 5.06 ERA. "I'm 36 years old, but it's more a matter of getting out of a rut," he said. "A rut and a groove are just about the same thing." Wow -- straight from the fortune cookie. 18 18 Montreal Expos So MLB made an extra $7 million to $10 million by playing 22 games in Puerto Rico, but Montreal wasn't allowed to add extra players in September because of budget constraints. What, is "Expos" French for "red-headed stepchild"? 19 19 Anaheim Angels Look for them to get back into the free-agent market, with superstar shortstop Miguel Tejada or Japanese star Kazuo Matsui their principal targets. And if that doesn't work, there's always Reggie Jackson and Bobby Grich. 20 20 Pittsburgh Pirates After a 10-6 loss to the Reds, manager Lloyd McClendon said, "My starter didn't give me everything he had." When reporters passed that comment along to starter Salmon Torres, he said, "I came to the same conclusion." 21 22 Colorado Rockies Attendance is down 15.6 percent. They owe $53.1 million to Denny Neagle, Larry Walker, since-traded Mike Hampton and three other players. And they have the NL's worst record since the All-Star break. The mountains are pretty, though. 22 21 Baltimore Orioles Southpaw Damian Moss, 10-11 with a 4.91 ERA after going 12-6 and 3.42 for the Braves last season, admits he's out of shape. How out of shape? He's hired two personal trainers -- two! -- to work with him over the winter. 23 23 Texas Rangers They say they'll lose $30 million this year. So owner Tom Hicks is vowing to cut the 2004 payroll to $70 million. That's $22 million for A-Rod, and $48 million for the other guys. 24 27 Cleveland Indians Demoted closer Danys Baez is due to make at least $4.1 million if he stays in Cleveland next season. But at 1-8 with 10 blown saves, tops in the majors, that's a pretty big "if." 25 24 Milwaukee Brewers Quiz time: Third baseman Wes Helms has 20 home runs. The last Brewers third baseman to hit that many in a season? Jeff Cirillo? Paul Molitor? Sal Bando? Don Money? None of the above. Tommy Harper in 1970. 26 25 New York Mets Did you see where they called up Tom Glavine's 30-year-old brother, Mike, last week? He hit .266 with 17 RBIs this season at Class AAA Norfolk. But it was a hard .266. 27 26 Cincinnati Reds Entering the weekend, they'd used 57 players and 30 pitchers. As a side note, the Reds also became the first major league team to attach players' names to uniforms with Velcro. 28 28 San Diego Padres How about Rod Beck's new shaved head? "I do miss the mullet," he said. "I loved it. I'd grow it back in a second if I could. I was even trying the comb-over thing for a while. The only thing left was weeds. What do you do with weeds? Whack `em!" 29 29 Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Rookie of the Year battle could get nasty. The Rays' PR folks are noting that Rocco Baldelli was just 11 years old when his main competitor, the Yankees' Hideki Matsui, was beginning his career in Japan. 30 30 Detroit Tigers They may not have much, but they do have Matt Roney. He recently switched caps with Hideki Matsui so see who had the biggest cap size. Roney came in at 8 ¼, Hideki at 8. It was the third "hat-off" Roney has won this year. He's a monster.